First of all i want to point out this won´t be a QQ post about something that killed me today a few times. Secondly it will be long so be patient. Also i am gonna use colors and bold text to make it easy to read not for another reason. Lastly i will split this in 3 parts, infantry, armor and air and under each of them i will say less about balancing between factions and mostly balancing issues between them. Also as a note, not all ideeas are original, some have already been discussed on the forums. 1. INFANTRY I think each should have their own niche and some are definitely lacking in that. Not other balancing issues i can see a. Medic: as far as class design they are decent and do what they should, i just think they are able to suppress but they should be able to hide allies better. What i mean by that is the smoke grenade should be their default attachment so they can put up smoke and give them a chance to res dead friendlies. Then he could ready get more chances to use their base ability. b. Engineer: again quite well designed, should probably have a little worse main weapon and a little boost to their turrets(maybe an AT turret). Even a redesign of the turret to make them harder to snipe(what i mean is filling up that stupid hole in the middle of the turret) c. LA: they do exactly what they should, no thoughts here d. HA: many ppl think they are a little OP, i believe they are exactly where they should be(as in front line, tanking more hits and giving more beating). Only concerns i have is about AtA rockets and ability to spam any type of rocket (maybe they should get a minor resource cost on rockets). Also their accuracy with LMG is stupidly high at range and it shouldn´t, they should be the close to middle range grunt rambolike spraying bullets. LA should be close to middle tactical support, medics should be able to suppress the area to them to give them time to res and heal but not to have that much accuracy as LA and engi should be also able to suppress but at middle to long range). e. Infiltrator: the first main infantry problem, they don´t actually have a role. As of now, they can snipe however are dumbly the only ones influenced by weapon sway(i don´t really get why they are the only ones that cannot hold a rifle). HA should not be able to accurately snipe snipers as they do now. Or any other class for that matter. I understand why removing weapon sway would be stupid, i just think that other classes should have that mechanic also. As for now to many weapons put pinpoint accurate bursts at sniping ranges. A weapon sway at the same intensity as the sniper rifles would be a minor change for short and middle ranges but would really help giving infiltrators more of a role as snipers. However sniping is not much of a role anyway, they should be able to do smth fun like ... infiltrate maybe. Hacking bases is 0 when you are not strong enough to defend what you hack anyway, is just a minor glitch that another inf or a engineer can fix in a sec. Being able to hack/steal vehicles or even lock them down for 5-10 seconds would really give them a chance to make a difference. f. MAX: oh dear, this one is tricky. Heard lots of complains about NC dual shotgun maxes. They are indeed strong within 5-10m but loose a lot during and over that. I believe they are perfectly balanced in strenghts and weaknesses with TR ones which shine between 10 and 20-30 and do decent under and over that. I also disagree that 5-10m is where maxes should fight anyway. When enemy knows where you are as a max they can kill you in a bunch of ways even with your dual hacks or we. Vanu max is... well... it needs a lot of work on. Again, being infantry and costing resources, i think they are where they should be as dmg and survivability. 2. ARMOR Here, as in air i feel that devs didn´t really have a clear ideea about what each vehicle should do. I believe lightnings should be fast, squishy and deadly. I believe MBT should be a slow hard nutshell which face to face should win but should be easy outmanuvered by lightnings. As it is now, lightnings and MBTs are mostly the same thing, Yeah, MBT has an extra turret that usually is crappy and is just better off with taking another MBT instead of a gunner. Also there is the problem of mags. On paper they aren´t that overpowered however in game they are. And is not about the gun as some might suggest, is the ability to dodge that other tanks don´t have. Even at very small range they still can show you only the front while shooting at your side. Yes, their cannon gives less dmg but not enough to compensate that. Not to say that their lower profile makes it easier to miss. PPl say you need to corner a mag to kill it with a vanguard or prowler but that is not easy to do cause they can get to places you can´t with the other MBT and make it virtually impossible take them off guard and corner them. In the end survivability makes them dominate the battlefield through sheer numbers. 3. AIR The air is considered by many the main issue and i tend to agree. Devs say that air should counter air and ground should only bother them and i tend to agree with that. Sure, if a pilot gets cocky he needs to be shut down by ground easy but that is preety much it. I also like the state in which libs are now. I would buff their tail gun a little(the AA ones not bulldog) and increase the shooting arc while decreasing the effectiveness of tank busters which now is a little to OP. Also probably the default gun should get a minor buff to make the others sidegrades not major upgrades. Why ppl end up complaining a lot about liberators is that EST are fundamentally flawed. They are the only thing in the game that are good at everything. That is because they are trying to fill 2 roles. If we look at real conflicts like WW2 which this game should be compared to(cause of the technology and engagement ranges are similar even if PS2 is trying to be futuristic) we had big bombers like liberators, small bombers like divebombers(for close range support) and we had fighters that aimed to take each other and the previous 2 down. EST are as good as libs if not better at doing dmg(which they shouldn´t in the first place cause of the size and manpowerer) and they end up getting more from bombing then they get from dogfighting(where they stand a higher chance of loosing the craft and get less certs). My solution to the curent problem would be a major nerf to pods. But need to keep in mind all the certs that ppl invested so my ideea was smth like. i. they can only carry a full mag of rockets. ii. they can shoot rockets one by one, burst or all at once iii. each rocket costs 2 air resources(for stopping the spam<less them heavy rockets but they are not as deadly) iv. cert that now increases the number or rockets does the same but now it would increase the mag size(as for the only one mag ideea) If this nerf would happen it would point pilots more to dogfighting and less to ground attack. I would also make dogfighting more appealing by increasing by the factor of 2 the exp when killing an enemy fighter or gunship. Also it is stupid that air pilots can deny killy by jumping out, If that wouldn´t happen more ppl would dogfight. Not to say that it is stupid that ppl can switch place in vehicle while in air. That decreases the need of more ppl in a craft like the liberator which ends up in less xp for lib kills. So the problem with libs appearing op would be fixed by just making them more of a target for fighter pilots. Now, to conclude before i give the thread for ******** and crying(and hopefully for some serious comments on what i wrote<if anyone read this much>) i would also think a major change should be made in the way xp/certs are gained for objectives and kills during fights. Cooperation in achieving a goal should be encouraged not zerging. Zerging is not cooperation, a blob of people decreases the importance of goals and objectives. The game already counts how many ppl are in a fight at a given time. I think that all xp gain should be divided by number of defenders vs number of attackers. A 12 man squad attacks a 12 man squad so they all get full xp for everything. A 48 man platoon attacks a 12 man squad, they get only 1/4 of the xp while the ones that are 12 get 4 times cause it is way harder for them to actually do anything anyway, they should be rewarded also. Sure, you can cap it at about 1/10 not to get a kill and and get 2 battleranks if you are zerged but still, there is no point for ppl as it is now to defend against superior odds and is no reward for ppl that are actually skilled and have good cooperation. That should break up zergs and make ppl want to fight more even and across the map(s) not just zerg a continent at a time. Ah, and i almost forgot, i seen a great ideea on the forums about a 4th continent that should be infantry only(a capital city contested by all factions). I support that completly, would make ppl that hate armor/air have smth to so while not upseting the ones that like. I could think of a 1000 ways of making a fight for a city interesting with new mechanics and all... Ty for reading and waiting for comments and suggestions and maybe things i missed.
